Breast-Feeding Moms Deserve Facilities

In Times staff writer Jocelyn Stewart’s story about working women who are trying to breast feed their newborn children, it was clear that too many were forced to use office bathrooms and supply closets to pump and store their milk for later use. It seems reasonable to suggest that provisions can and ought to be made in the workplace for better conditions for working mothers in this instance, at little cost to employers. In fact, cost savings are likely to accrue from such efforts.

This is a serious subject. As Stewart’s story pointed out, 67% of all women of child-bearing age are in the labor force, and more than 40% of all women with infants aged 1 or younger are working full- or part-time. It’s also a subject surrounded by incredible ignorance.

No, for example, you wouldn’t prepare your lunch in a bathroom, as a professor at UCLA’s School of Nursing points out, “yet we’re preparing our baby’s food in toilet stalls.” Even more ridiculous is the presumption that a woman can somehow take care of this before she leaves for work. The fact of the matter is that a lactating mother is producing milk constantly. Failing to relieve that for long hours at the office each day will mean that she will stop producing milk in sufficient quantity.

Not much is required here. A clean room with privacy may suffice in most instances. A refrigerator is not even essential. A variation of the same wonderful little chemical cold packs that are used on sports injuries can be used to keep the mother’s milk at a safe storage temperature.

In the Valley, the city of Burbank stands out for doing much more than this to make life a little easier, and more dignified, for its working mothers. It has now embraced a program begun five years ago by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. There, employees have been offered a lactation program replete with classes, counselors, a lactation pump for each mother, and a room. “It’s an idea whose time has come,” says John K. Nicoll, Burbank’s management services director.

It’s also an important matter because the rather amazing health benefits of breast feeding have never been more apparent. And these health benefits can save money.

Breast milk reduces the risk of diabetes in infants, provides protection against infections, has anti-bacterial protections, and helps strengthen the immune system. It lessens the risks of diarrhea, generally protects the entire digestive tract, and reduces the rates of serious gastroenteritis. Studies have even suggested that it aids in brain development and reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.

That seems, to us, to point to potential benefits for employers, such as fewer lost workdays for employees who stay at home to care for sick children. It may also result in lower health insurance costs. That’s reason enough to consider a clean and private room at the office for working mothers.